The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also correspond to embodiments of the claimed subject matter.
As modern electronics advance a variety of new use cases and implementations are entering the marketplace including the use of flexible (and sometimes stretchable) electronics for clothing and other wearable devices. This presents a serious problem for manufacturers of such electronics devices, clothing, and so called “wearables” given the simple fact that advanced electronics historically have been made to be ridged. “Wearables,” “wearable technology,” “fashionable technology,” “wearable devices,” “tech togs,” and “fashion electronics” are all in reference to a class of clothing, garments, and accessories which incorporate computer and advanced electronics technologies into “wearable” pieces, be they clothing or otherwise. Wearable devices such as activity trackers represent a part of the “Internet of Things” or “IoT” as they form part of the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors and connectivity to enable objects to exchange data with a manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices, without requiring human intervention.
While such wearables commonly have an aesthetic aspect to them, we discuss the functional and technological aspects of wearables herein and more particularly discuss issues pertaining to semiconductor and electronics manufacturing of such wearables.
Fundamentally, as manufacturers of such wearables having these flexible and stretchable substrates embodied therein seek to scale up production processes and lower the cost of manufacturing, there are needed new manufacturing processes for the handling and processing of such flexible and stretchable substrates, just as conventional approaches were developed in years past for the handling and processing of conventional rigid (e.g., inflexible) electronics substrates.
Unfortunately, such conventional approaches are not satisfactory for the handling of flexible and stretchable substrates due to the fragile nature of the materials. For instance, a variety of problems arise when attempting to utilize conventional manufacturing techniques developed for non-flexible substrates with flexible substrates, including the flexible substrates failing to maintain their shape on a carrier, the flexible substrates ripping or tearing, the flexible substrates being blown off of their carrier plates due to even small air currents or drafts, and so forth. Clips, clamps, and mechanical presses used with conventional inflexible substrates have been observed to be especially prone to damaging the soft and fragile materials used in such flexible substrates.
The present state of the art may therefore benefit from the means for implementing a magnetic particle embedded flexible substrate, a printed flexible substrate for a magnetic tray, or an electro-magnetic carrier for magnetized or ferromagnetic flexible substrates as is described herein.